The downfall of the mask
by Lilychx
Summary: A dialogue between Batman and the Joker on the roof of the Gotam City Police Department. All in a songfiction on the lirycs of, Demon from Imagine Dragon.


Hi, I wanted to apologize because I'm French and I started writing song fiction. The song in question is Demon from the group Imagine Dragon, that I'll put you right after so that you can remember some lyrics. Then it's a fanfiction about the univer DC comics. More precisely the characters of the Joker and Batman imagined by the great Scott Snyder.

Since English is not my native language, try to be misleading in the face of my syntax and spelling errors

* * *

Demons - Imagine Dragons

When the days are cold

And the cards all fold

And the saints we see

Are all made of gold

When your dreams all fail

And the ones we hail

Are the worst of all

And the blood's run stale

I want to hide the truth

I want to shelter you

But with the beast inside

There's nowhere we can hide

No matter what we breed

We still are made of greed

This is my kingdom come

This is my kingdom come

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

Don't get too close

It's dark inside

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

When the curtain's call

Is the last of all

When the lights fade out

All the sinners crawl

So they dug your grave

And the masquerade

Will come calling out

At the mess you made

Don't want to let you down

But I am hell bound

Though this is all for you

Don't want to hide the truth

No matter what we breed

We still are made of greed

This is my kingdom come

This is my kingdom come

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

Don't get too close

It's dark inside

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

They say it's what you make

I say it's up to fate

It's woven in my soul

I need to let you go

Your eyes, they shine so bright

I want to save their light

I can't escape this now

Unless you show me how

When you feel my heat

Look into my eyes

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

Don't get too close

It's dark inside

It's where my demons hide

It's where my demons hide

* * *

Where was Batman? The Joker had been looking for him for days. The last time he met him, the bat seemed dull and detached. As if he was no longer interested in their games. As if deep down he knew it was going to end. Yet the Joker had made an effort of imagination to get him out of hiding. Spectacular break-ins, neat hostage situation, He even gassed a whole neighborhood making its habitants hysterical for days. But the end was near, the Joker felt it and for him too it was hard. He would have wanted it to last forever. _**But When the days are cold a****nd the cards all fold**_ we have to face the fact that time has changed. When sinners are made of shade. _**And the saints we see are all made of gold**_ is that it's time for people like Batman and him to return their aprons. The world change and they no longer have their place. The world where superheroes fought super villains has come to an end.

But the Joker needed to see Batman one last time before he completely disappeared. He needed to see who was hiding behind the mask of his creator. So he could disappear without any regret or bitterness.

It is on the roof of the central police station that he ends up finding him. Sitting with legs hanging in the void not far from the dismantled Batsignal. The Joker came to stand in precarious balance on the edge of the roof.

\- You're gonna fall, Joker.

And then would that be so serious after all? We've done our time Batsy. No one wants us anymore. Whether it's you or me. Nobody wants the extraordinary anymore. Everyone aspires to incredible monotony. They want to blend in with the crowd. And especially that everyone merges with them. No one wants to dream anymore. We don't fit in the scenery anymore.

\- What did you do, _**when your dreams all fail and the ones we hail are the worst of all**_?

The bat didn't really expect an answer. The Joker knew that.

\- On that basis, all you have to do is let you die, Batsy. Even if you, unlike me, have the possibility to blend into this new world. You just have to give up your mask.

\- It is not that simple. Even without my mask I am not able to adapt to this new world. The air is putrid _**and the blood's run stale.**_

Batman stands up and grabs the Joker by the shoulders. He shakes him and fails to make him fall from the roof.

\- And you! You will never drop the mask! I will never know who you really are.

The Joker starts to laugh. An hysterical laugh. A laugh in which his tears mingle.

\- _**I want to hide the truth, I want to shelter you but with the beast inside**_ me _**there's nowhere we can hide.**_ I don't have a mask, this is my real face.

The Joker, who had had enough of his chair mask years before, had ripped it off. leaving the muscles and tendons of his face alive. Leaving his eyeballs without the protection of his eyelids. He didn't need it because he wasn't sleeping anyway. Since a thin layer of epidermis had begun to cover the muscles but it was so thin and pale that we could see everything through.

\- I broke free of my fake self the day you pushed me into the ACE tanks, Batsy. It is thanks to you that I was finally able to fully assume who I am. And maybe it's time you did the same. It's time for you to take the damn mask off and assume who you are! You're not a vigilante! You are just a man filled with anger and desire for revenge! When you accept it, you will know that you too can disappear without regret.

\- _**No matter what we breed we still are made of greed.**_

\- Exactly my Batsy you're beginning to understand.

\- _**This is my kingdom come.**_

The Joker reaches out to him one hand and on the other he shows him Gotham lying at their feet.

\- _**This is my kingdom come.**_

Batman hesitates. But he ends up accepting the hand extended by the Joker. He is tired of playing the comedy. He is tired of always having to fight against others and especially against himself. Maybe in the back, all he ever wanted was a friend who looked like him. He even created one for himself, but rather than accept it and embrace it he spent his life fighting it. But in the end he was there reaching out.

All his years the Joker had been waiting for this. that Batman accepts that he is his friend. Despite everything he was afraid for him. Afraid that at his side he will burn his wings.

\- _**When you feel my heat look into my eyes. It's where my demons hide.**_

Batman plunges his dark eye into the Joker's orbit.

\- _**It's where my demons hide.**_

Batan pushes back the Joker who wobbles between the roof and the void below.

\- _**Don't get too close**_ Joker. _**It's dark inside**_ me. _**It's where my demons hide.**_

The Joker regains his balance and crashes again in front of Batman. Very close. Batman lays a hand on his own heart.

\- _**It's where my demons hide.**_

\- I know Batsy.

The Joker lays his forehead against Batman's chest. Giving their silhouette a strange look. the void is always beside them, ready to swallow them up. He can't help laughing. It's nervous. He's sick. He's always been. But the scene calls him one last time. She calls him and Batman for an ultimate performance.

\- _**When the curtain's call. Is the last of all. When the lights fade out all the sinners crawl**_. It's time to join them, Batsy.

\- _**So they dug your grave**_, isn't it? _**And the masquerade will come calling out at the mess you made.**_

\- Yes, but what a mess! He was beautiful! Said the Joker by moving away, spreading his arms wide and turning on himself.

\- Depends on your point of view, Joker.

\- Don't be a pain in the ass, Batsy.

\- Stop calling me that.

\- And what do you want me to call you? Batman? too impersonal. The black knight? Too formal for my taste. The bat? A little too disdainful, don't you think? And since I don't know the name of the man who hides under the mask, all I have left is Batsy.

\- You know exactly who I am.

\- No, I guess so, but I've never had proof of that.

Batman sits back on the edge of the roof with his legs in a void. The Joker sits next to him. Their shoulders touch.

\- Joker?

\- Yes?

\- Are you sure? Have you made up your mind? Are you really going to disappear?

\- _**Don't want to let you down**_ Batsy _**But I am hell bound**_. And all my actions were done to get your attention. I couldn't live without you. Though this is all for you. The Joker shows his face. I _**Don't want to hide the truth.**_ He takes a break before resuming. Yes, I will disappear. But it seems to me that you too are beginning to seek the same path.

\- _**No matter what we breed**_ in our self_. __**We still are made of greed**_. And finally greed _**this is my kingdom. Come. **_

The Joker gets closer and passes his arm around Bataman's shoulders.

\- No, greed, _**this is MY kingdom, come**_ with me. _**When you feel my heat**_, like now, _**look into my eyes **_or through them, _**it's where my demons hide.**_

The Joker moves one hand closer to the Batman mask and tries to remove it. But Batman stops it by placing his hand on his.

\- _**Don't get too close**_ Joker. Behind my mask is a broken man. _**It's dark inside**_ me, _**it's where my demons are hide**_. If you break this barrier I'm not sure I can hold them. In my thoughts, in my heart, _**it's where my demons hide**_.

The Joker removes Batman's mask. Batman lets him do. A smile illuminates the Joker's face. He throws the mask off into the streets below.

\- Bruce Wayne. They say _**it's what you do**_ that broke you. _**I say it's up to fate**_.

The Joker lays his head on Bruce Wayne's shoulder and despite the huge smile cut out in this peeled face tears flow from his eyeless eyes.

\- No, don't cry Joker. _**Your eyes shine so bright**_ when you're happy. _**I want to save their light**_.

\- There is nothing left to save Batsy. It is the end for me and for you too.

\- _**I can't escape this now. Unless you show me how?**_

\- Batsy there is only one way out for us now. And you know it perfectly. That's why you're here with me tonight.

\- I know. I pushed the deadline too far.

The joker stands up and reaches out to help Bruce do the same. They loosen their hand but stay very close to each other.

\- No tricks, no poker games, Joker.

\- No gadgets, no allies, Batsy.

They have put their feet half in the void. They are no longer afraid. They are no longer sad. For both of them the decision was made a long time ago. They were just waiting to be able to do it together. They appeared together, they lived together, they had to disappear together. They turned their heads towards each other and looked into each other eyes without any filters.

\- Batsy, _**when you feel my heat**_…

\- I know you're here

\- _**Look into my eyes**_. What do you see?

\- The storm that finally settles.

\- In all the dark alleys of Gotham …

_**\- It's where my demons hide.**_

\- In all the people you hurt, who you failed to save…

\- _**It's where my demons hide**_.

The Jocker is taking a step closer to Batman.

\- _**Don't get too close.**_

But Batman fills the last centimeters that separate them and embraces the Joker. Joker wraps his arms around Batman. The latter whispers to him in the ear.

\- _**It's dark inside**_ my heart.

\- I know, Batsy.

\- And yet you always had your place there. And in this body so fragile that I hold in my arms…

\- _**It's where my demons hide.**_

And in all the hysterical laughter in Gotham…

\- _**it's where my demons hide.**_

In the same movement the Joker and Batman drop into the void without regret or bitterness.

* * *

Thank you very much for reading my text.

do not hesitate to leave me your positive and negative comments as long as they are constructive!


End file.
